Kapolei fears
pain in the earBuilding officials say that
an amphitheater will have
little noise impact in the region
Kapolei community leaders say a proposed 15,000-seat amphitheater near Hawaii Raceway Park could become a landmark in their back yards -- complete with noise and heavy traffic.
"Hawaii Raceway Park is almost three miles from my house, and on certain nights the winds blow and we can hear the engines gunning and revving up," said Maeda Timson, chairwoman of the Makakilo-Kapolei-Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board.
The amphitheater "certainly is a pretty neat thing to have in any community. But we want to make sure that the concerns are heard."
So far, they have been, she said.
The project's key Oahu players have visited Timson's board to address potential problems and plan to return Wednesday with more details on what kind of noise and traffic residents can expect when the amphitheater is completed.
The structure will sit on 33.5 acres of Campbell Estate land across from Kapolei Business Park. The nearest residential properties are three miles away, in a 300-home Honokai Hale cluster.
Jeff Bryant, president and chief executive officer of the company that has spearheaded the amphitheater construction and will manage it once built, said the amphitheater will have minimal noise impact on the surrounding community because of its location, miles away from any housing area.
"We wanted to get as far away as possible from residents so as not to have the same problems as the Waikiki Shell," which now has a 9:30 p.m. noise curfew because of its proximity to hundreds of homes, said Bryant, of Michigan-based Global Venue Group LLC.
An environmental noise assessment, completed late last month for the company that plans to build the venue, recommended a system to monitor sound levels from amphitheater events.
The assessment, by acoustical consultants D.L. Adams Associates Ltd., found no potential impact on area homes, but said the project could affect a future development planned in an area nearer to the amphitheater.
For those future homes, "the hours of the amphitheater may need to be limited to avoid noise-sensitive times," according to the assessment.
Bryant said the amphitheater will have noise barriers to dampen any event sounds. Sound equipment could also be installed to face away from existing or future developments, he said.
Honokai Hale resident and neighborhood board member Jane Ross suggested a test be done to simulate the expected noise emitted by a concert at the amphitheater.
"We know that it depends a lot on the winds," she said. "The tradewinds would bring" more noise.
In addition to the noise, neighborhood board members and others are concerned about traffic.
The structure will have a 3,000-space parking lot and could attract as many cars during peak afternoon traffic. Bryant plans for the venue to have a packed, year-round schedule, with a variety of well-known local and mainland performers.
"Kapolei traffic is already like yikes," Timson said, adding that she will suggest more lanes be added to the H-1 cutoff after the Kapolei exit in preparation for heavier traffic.
The four-tiered amphitheater, expected to cost $20 million, is being called a middle-ground alternative to the 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium and venues like the Waikiki Shell or Blaisdell Center, which seat fewer than 9,000.
Bryant's Global Venue has already begun soliciting money from private investors and hopes to have the amphitheater completed by late next year.
"We don't want a lot of bells and whistles. We want the music and we want the ambience," he said.
